The Rhyme of Sim'

Tried unsuccessfully to sleep in this morning – kids don’t seem to understand Sundays at all.

Enrique took us out for lunch to a restaurant called the Simon Parrilla – nice name. He convinced Leanne to order something which was described as the belly of the cow (not the inside yucky bits, but the fleshy part). I opted for the baby steak instead. I didn’t realise it would still be bleating though – Colombian restaurants don’t seem to cook the meat any way but rare.

Andres plays with one of the boys at the restaurant

Enrique and his girlfriend

Nicol finally falls alseep

Leanne's cow belly. It was huge.

Part one of my lunch: bean soup, cooked platano, rice, arepa, coleslaw, avacado

Part two of my lunch: "Baby" steak. Rare. Very, very tender and flavoursome though.

Our entertainment

Andres and some of the boys who came to lunch with us

Simon Parrilla

After lunch, our driver took us out to the transportation museum (Museo Aereo Fenix), where we looked at their collection of classic planes and cars, their amazing model train layout, and the large collections of model vehicles in display cabinets.

Andres falls asleep on the way to the transportation museum

Andres enjoying the extensive model train layout - they provide stools for the kids to use - he enjoyed running to the next viewing point with his stool.

It was a tiring day – but topped off nicely with a cake for dessert - another birthday for one of the guests!

Slow start to the morning – woke up to find a steady drizzle of rain outside.

At the moment, it is one of the two annual “wet” seasons here in Cali. Different regions of Colombia have enormous differences in altitude and along with those differences come different climates.

Apparently Colombians tend to describe their country in terms of these climate zones – the low-lying “hot” zone, the mid-range “temperate” zone and the high up “cold zone”. At around 1000m above sea-level, Cali is in the temperate zone, while Bogota at over 2,600m is in the cold zone.

Being so close to the equator, the weather is largely the same all year round, although the temperate zone is still influenced by humid air flowing in from the Pacific Ocean.

Twice a year from March to May and from October to November, the rainfall increases in Cali to form their “wet season” (also referred to as “winter” by the locals. The mountains to the west of the city range in height from around 2,000m in the north to around 4,000m in the south. As as result, the difference in rainfall to different parts of the city can be quite dramatic, with the north-west of the city being typically a lot drier than the south-west part. Apparently, average annual rainfall in some areas is around 900mm, while in others it is as high as 1,800mm!

Our visit to Cali in 2009 started at the end of the wet season (we arrived mid-May), thus the first week we were here it did rain a bit, but then the remainder of the visit was hot and mostly dry.

This time, since we are here a month earlier, we have pretty much the whole wet season to enjoy. We have found the temperatures quite a bit cooler this trip – indeed, it almost feels cold at times when the breeze blows (although the humidity levels keep the air feeling warmer – I’m still in shorts and tshirt, only once was I tempted to put on long pants!).

It has also rained a lot more than on our last trip – however the rain seems to fall mostly at night, or at worst in the early morning, clearing to fine days. Some days are just dull and overcast without any rain at all.

So we hoped that today the rain would clear soon after breakfast, but it seemed that the drizzle had set in and so we abandoned any plans to go for a walk. I ended up spending some time on the front porch with Andres in the morning before getting some more work done just before lunch.

I did manage to take some photos of our room just after it had been cleaned – much better than taking some just before it gets cleaned!

Looking into our room from the door

Looking towards the door to our private balcony

Our beds, I think Andres enjoys having a double bed all to himself, although for some reason he got the comfortable bed, while ours is rock solid and gives us sore hips and shoulders.

Looking back towards the door to the room from the doorway of our private balcony. The closed door to the right is the bathroom.

Our private balcony. Ideal for drying clothes - we've done a bit of our own washing for convenience and to save costs.

Our private balcony

The bathroom. Hot water can be difficult to come by some mornings. It's not as bad as it was last time though, when the hotel was pretty much full. Not as much competition for hot water this time.

After lunch we all had sleeps – although Nicol was very grizzly and only slept for short periods. By late afternoon, the rain had cleared and left us with a blue sky and clean air, so we decided to go for a walk.

Nicol, moments before she made a lunge for the lens with wet fingers!

Leanne snoozes on the couch on the balcony outside our room while trying to get Nicol to sleep. I think she sleeps better with the noise of the traffic!

Andres wanted to go and visit the River Cats again, so we walked there and had a look around before heading further upstream along the Cali River. We crossed the river at the next bridge and then headed back towards the hotel. We stopped to pick up some supplies at a small supermarket on the way before walking back to the hotel.

Andres's favourite River Cat

River Cat with other famous cats on it

River Cat

The famous cat statue

The River Cali, still very swollen after all the rain

A quiet day today. I spent some time working in the morning, while Leanne took Andres and Nicol out to the front porch of the hotel to play with the other kids.

I did bring my camera out for a while to take some photos though.

Nicol watches Andres and Isak play.

Andres watches Casper fly paper airplanes off the porch

Nicol does this little "sitting jump" thing

Andres watches Emil experiment with my wide-angle (10-22mm) lens on his Canon 7D

Andres and Nicol on Mama's lap

Funny face - taken at 10mm focal length with my 10-22mm lens

Nicol shows her distaste for my camera experimentation. Note the two fingers in her mouth - she always has these two fingers (from either hand) in her mouth!

Nicol asleep on our bed

Leanne tries to put Andres in the ergo carrier for old times sake - he fits (just), but it's not exactly comfortable for either party!

Andres spent quite a bit of time in the afternoon playing with some cousins who were visiting – they are related somehow to one of the staff members here, never did quite work out who and how. Once again, he proves that language is no barrier to playing successfully together, he had a great time with them!

Andres out playing with the boys, looking very much NOT like a 3yo!

Late in the afternoon, Leanne to Andres and Nicol for a walk down to see the River Cats, while I did some more work. Still trying to catch up a bit with all the outings we’ve had in the past couple of weeks – plus the power outage yesterday.

Today’s activity was somewhat dictated by the lack of power at the hotel from last night’s storm.

We had been told that the power was expected back on some time this morning. I was planning on getting some work done, so it was a bit frustrating without internet access.

There was a lot of activity on the streets around the hotel, with various work crews cleaning up after the storm. A large branch from a tree fell near the entrance to the hotel – they were able to remove it from the road the night before, but someone decided that the entire tree was a bit rotten and posed a risk. It leaned directly over the front gate and security guard’s hut, so they were worried that it might fall and damage the fence – or worse, injure someone.

Climb a tree and cut it down with a chainsaw using only one hand? Easy!

Cleaning up after the storm

We faced almost constant chainsaw noise most of the morning and part of the afternoon too as they worked to clean up.

While watching them work just before lunch, I asked one of the staff if they had heard when the power was due on. They replied between 12 and 1pm – which had me hoping it might be back by the time we had finished lunch.

I spent time on front porch with kids. Andres is enjoying having the ASUS Transformer tablet with his favourite TV shows on. We have to limit his viewing, but we also get to use it as leverage to encourage cooperation from him!

Andres watches Pocoyo on the computer

Later in the afternoon, we headed to the nearby shopping mall to do some grocery shopping. When we arrived home, we found that the power had been restored – so I was finally able to start catching up on some work stuff. The power had been off for nearly 24 hours, which was a bit of a pain.

At dinner, Leanne once again stayed in the room with a sleeping Nicol while I took Andres to the dining room. When they brought out some dessert that I knew I wouldn’t like, I declined it – so the lady serving us went and got a piece of the birthday cake they had bought for me yesterday out of the fridge. I shared it with Andres and it was very nice – he enjoyed it too.

Our plan overnight worked reasonably well, we fed Nicol a bottle just before 11PM and changed her nappy. She was still half asleep, so was reasonably compliant. In return, she slept until nearly 6AM, which was a much better outcome for us.

We got up, had breakfast and got ready for our important meeting this morning with the Defensor at ICBF. It is the Defensor who makes the decisions about which children are “adoptable” according to the law, and so it is their responsibility (for their district) to ensure that they are aware of all children currently in the system and their full social and legal history.

Since our last visit in 2009, the ICBF offices have moved to a location only a couple of blocks from the Hotel Pension Stein, which was very convenient. It was a leisurely 15 minute walk from the hotel where we met our interpreter (Magnolia), our lawyer and the Defensor.

Our meeting today was to determine whether to permit our file to proceed to the courts via the lawyer we had been assigned. It was a simple meeting – situations with a healthy infant are generally fairly clear cut and unless there is an unforseen problem (from either side) – it is generally just a procedural meeting. We spent more time talking about how cute the kids were than we did checking the legal documents and signing them.

Next, we went to the building next door which was one of many Notario offices (Notaries) who provide various services, in our case to notarise copies of our passports for the legal process. We lined up for a short period and paid our fee, then were free to head back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel, Leanne took Andres out to the front porch while I did some work and watched over a sleeping Nicol.

Lunch was the usual delicious fare, but I was surprised after returning from a trip to the toilet with Andres to find a large cake on our table with candles, and everyone started singing happy birthday to me. At least I was supposed to be surprised – Andres had blabbed something to me about it yesterday, but I had honestly forgotten about it, so I was actually surprised when I came in and saw it there. The cake was delicious!

After lunch, we got dressed up again and climbed into another hire car for yet another trip to Chiquitines. This time is was for a tour of the orphanage and to meet some of the staff we didn’t get a chance to say hello to last time.

The drive there was uneventful, the tour was just like last time – lots of kids in need of families. We still believe they do a fantastic job at the orphanage considering the limited resources they have. The kids all look healthy and well cared for – the staff really care about their jobs and their responsibilities to these children.

Central courtyard at Chiquitines

Andres says hello to some of the kids at Chiquitines

The staff doctor comes to say hello to Nicol

The cot where Nicol slept while at Chiquitines

Andres plays in the playground at Chiquitines

Nicol

Group photo with Nicol (Magnolia in the middle)

Director of Chiquitines, Agatha gives Nicol a hug

Smiles for Nicol

A hug from the staff doctor

After the tour, we dropped Magnolia off for her next appointment and sat back to enjoy the rest of the ride back to the hotel. We could see a big thunderstorm brewing in the distance and as we got closer, it looked like it was raining quite a bit in the area around the hotel.

As late-afternoon traffic grew heavier, our driver took a different route to avoid the usual congestion around the river. However, as we wound our way up into the foothills around Cali, the rain started and got heavier and heavier. Soon, there were torrents of water flowing down the roads – and in many cases, across the roads. In one place, the water looked close to two feet deep and flowing very, very fast.

As we proceeded, the traffic got heavier, we started seeing trees fallen across the road, mud- and rock-slides across the road, and a lot of damage everywhere. It seems that we missed the worst of the storm and it was actually quite serious in some places.

After coming across almost stationary traffic in several places, our driver back-tracked a couple of times before giving up and driving back the way we came, almost to the point where we started our original detour to avoid the heavy traffic!

What proceeded next was an interesting tour through the back-streets of Cali, working our way through narrow alleys and winding roads. Eventually, we came back to the normal place we would have tried to cross the river – traffic was very heavy, but at least it was moving, even if only slowly.

It was a little disappointing that I was not able to reach my camera and take some photos of the more interesting areas we drove though, but Andres was asleep on my lap for most of the journey. The wet car windows and very dark and overcast conditions outside would have made it difficult to get good photos anyway, so I don’t feel I missed too much opportunity. We might have to arrange a tour another day where I can take photos.

We finally made it around to the river crossing and due to a fortunate (for us) circumstance of a fallen tree blocking the road that usually makes it difficult to get around the next couple of corners, we were able to take a not-quite-legal shortcut and avoid several very busy intersections to get back to the hotel about 10 minutes quicker than we otherwise would have.

I think we set a new record for travel from Chiquitines to the Hotel Pension Stein – it was almost two hours by the time we got home. As I hopped out of the car, I could smell the clutch burning quite badly – I hope the driver made it home okay!

However, if we thought we were now home and could relax, we were mistaken. We got in to discover that the storm had taken out several transformers in the region only about 20 minutes earlier, rendering our hotel and many neighboring buildings without power. The word was that it would not be repaired before morning – so we would need to spend the night without power.

After getting changed in our room by the rapidly failing twilight and the help of a compact torch we always carry when travelling for moments just like this, we headed out to the front porch of the hotel to find out what was going on and wait for dinner.

Apparently, Enrique had hurt his knee quite badly (I’m guessing after the power went out) and was sitting on one of the couches, directing “traffic” (ie staff and guests) around the hotel. His daughter organised some wine, peanuts and popcorn for the hotel guests and we sat around with some candles and enjoyed the peaceful evening.

Actually, it wasn’t peaceful at all – due to the traffic chaos, there was constant honking of horns and regular sirens to be heard from the street below as frustrated drivers tried to make their way home. However, it was still pleasant.

It seems that the storm had actually caused some bad flooding in some parts of the hotel, but we seemed to have escaped that, no water inside our room – and not much out on the balcony, although some clothes we had hanging out there to dry were damp again.

Being my birthday, Leanne had arranged a romantic candle-lit dinner for two at a nearby restaurant with my favourite meal. Well, it was actually the hotel dining room. Our two kids were there as well. So were all the other families and guests. The candles were only there because the power was out. It wasn’t exactly romantic in reality. But the meal was quite nice – Spaghetti Bolognaise – and the power outage did provide an interesting ambiance to the evening.

The worst part about the power being out is that we can’t have the fan going in our room. To cope with the hot and humid weather and the fact that our room stays hot at night (we can’t really open all the doors due to mosquitoes and such) – we have our ceiling fan running pretty much all the time we are here. We do have an airconditioner in the room, but it is the old wall-mounted type and quite noisy. Usually the fan is sufficient to keep the air moving and it feeling pleasant enough in the room.

However, with the fan non-operational, it is stifling in here. Right now, I’m writing this blog post by the light of my laptop keyboard light (with the power set to “maximum battery life” mode), sitting next to the only window with functional insect-screens and the occasional waft of cool air comes in to make it bareable in here.

Although some of the other buildings in the street have power (they are served from separate transformers), I can’t find any available and not-secured WiFi networks close enough to be able to get online. I’m writing this in Notepad and will post it tomorrow once the power and internet come back online.

There’s not a lot more I can do tonight – the battery on the laptop should last long enough to watch a couple of TV episodes I’ve got stored, there’s a couple of games on the ASUS Transformer that don’t require internet access, but otherwise I’ll probably just be lying there, sweating, longing for the power company to come and fix things as soon as possible.